Post Selfies, Raise Your Standards, Love Yourself

By now, you are used to hearing the nasty voice in the back of your head. You are used to insulting yourself. You are used to getting upset every time you check the mirror. You are used to deleting photos. You are used to looking at other girls and wishing you had their hair, their stomach, their chest.

This is your reminder you are not supposed to hate yourself. You are not supposed to tear yourself apart. You are not supposed to list off reasons why you hate yourself before falling asleep at night. You are not supposed to be your own worst enemy.

Stop normalizing self-hatred. It doesn’t matter if you constantly hear your friends complaining about how much weight they’ve gained. It doesn’t matter if you keep seeing movies with celebrities who are supposed to play the weird and ugly character even though they look a million times better than you have ever felt.

It doesn’t matter if the world encourages your bad, self-destructive behavior. You have to put an end to your self-hatred. You have to treat yourself with more kindness.

You are allowed to love yourself. You are allowed to call yourself pretty. You are allowed to walk around, feeling confident.

Screw anyone who calls you stuck up for setting your standards high. You are supposed to believe you are worthy of love. You are supposed to believe you deserve more than the minimum amount of effort. You are supposed to cut toxic people out of your world and only leave room for the good ones.

Screw anyone who calls you self-absorbed for posting ten selfies in a row. If you are feeling good about yourself for the first time in forever, if you are excited about how good your makeup looks or how cute your outfit is, then post all the pictures you please.

Screw anyone who wants you to feel bad about yourself, who wants you to hover around rock bottom, who is unable to be happy for you when you succeed. You don’t need their negativity. You don’t need their bad energy. You should surround yourself with people who celebrate your victories, not people who celebrate your failures.

Screw anyone who gives you backhanded compliments, who leaves a nasty comment on your pictures, who makes you feel bad about yourself. Their opinions are none of your business. Ignore them. They are not worth your attention. They are not worth your tears.

Screw anyone who acts like you have no right to think of yourself as a catch, to call yourself attractive, to like your eyes or your smile or your legs. Screw anyone who thinks it’s endearing to hate yourself because you deserve to love yourself. You deserve to think of yourself as beautiful.

You are allowed to post cute pictures of yourself. You are allowed to tell everyone about your promotion or vacation or bouquet of flowers your boyfriend sent you. You are allowed to get excited. You are allowed to be happy for yourself.